Seeing the pulverized castle.. I felt helplessness, guilt. If I had just been here and didn't go flaunting my power at the Victoriad, this could have been prevented.

I was running my hand through the ashen remains of the castle, when Sylvie's ears perked up. "Arthur, there are sounds of battle in the distance. Go, while there's still someone left to save!"

This knocked me out of my trance of self pity as I instantly took off towards the battle going on in the distance.

"Arthur, is your family alright?" Asked Sylv with a distressed voice.

"The kings and queens escaped through a special evacuation portal along with my family, courtesy to Virion. It leads straight to the wall, they should be safe there."

Anger flared within me as I scanned the battleground, seeing corpses of soldiers and ordinary people everywhere, the ground soaked in fresh blood as the overwhelming scent of hit my nose. It seems the inhabitants of the castle almost managed to evacuate, but their efforts were in vain. 

Observing the fight, I saw a wounded Varay along with Kath fighting off two figures I haven't seen before, Aya with Bairon fighting off another in the distance and a fourth one causing havoc in the distance toying around with a barely conscious Mica.

'The Wraiths' - scoffed Regis - 'Agrona's little secret half-bloods.'

It couldn't be called a fight, the wraiths were.. toying with them. They were obviously stronger than Scythes, trash talking the entire time while effortlessly dodging and overpowering their opponents' attacks.

"Sylv, help the wounded. Regis, go help Mica, then Bairon and Aya." I said in a stern voice.

I Godstepped towards one of the female wraiths and delivered a powerful spinning kick to her abdomen that sent her flying towards the ground at ludicrous speeds, the impact creating a small crater.

"H-huh?" - Kath's eyes gleamed. - "Arthur, you're back!"

I ignored her for the time being, turning to face the other wraith. Folding the space between us, I found myself directly in front of him.

Ice spread out from my fingers, branching out and enveloping the wraith. Mana coalesced as he tried to attack, the black mana getting instantly dispelled.

The female wraith stood up, blood leaking from her head and arm. Extending my hand, the distance between us shortened, her neck suddenly close enough for me to grip it.

A terrified expression appeared on her face as the female wraith stammered. "Y-you..." - she gasped for breath - "You were supposed to be dead!"

The many attacks the wraiths tried to execute were swiftly dispelled as I released even more pressure, staring into her empty eyes. "You were a fool to come here." I said, rage finally leaking through the cracks in my cold facade.

The Wraith chuckled. "Your struggles are.. meaningless. You are never going to win against Agrona."

With just a thought, universe flames enveloped the wraiths, burning their bodies but leaving their trinkets intact, which I collected into my necklace.

One last word escaped my mouth as I turned around, letting the wraiths burn. "Fodder"

Sylv approached Varay, using a Vivum to heal the large wound across her chest. "You were lucky, if the wound was any deeper, it would have hit your heart."

Varay looked at me and snickered. "A grand entrance again, huh?"

Regis finished his fights, bringing the two wraiths over to me in his mouth. "All done, sir." He said in an overly serious voice, saluting with his paw.

I patted him on the head. "Who's a good boy." I said in an overly cute and excited voice, his expression turning annoyed.

A voice came from behind me, interrupting my teasing of Regis. "Don't think this redeems what you did to Olfred." Bairon snarled.

"Oh, I'm sorry for killing a traitor. I won't do it again, promise." I said sarcastically, shooting him an innocent look.

"Tch"

After confirming everything was alright, I turned around and pulled Kath into a hug. "I'm glad you're alright."

She was silent, burrowing her face in my shoulder.

"Here, I got something that should help make you stronger."

I handed Kath two of the wraiths' horns, distributing the rest among the five lances and Regis. I threw one of Kiros' horns to Sylv, keeping one for myself.

"We should go report this to Virion." I said as I opened a portal leading to the Wall.

Walking through, I was met with scared guards pointing their weapons at me. As soon as the lances passed through, however, they breathed a sigh of relief as they put down their weapons, only to tense up after seeing their blood-filled clothes and exhausted expressions.

I opened a portal right in front of the evacuation portal Virion and the others went through, a small but well guarded room.

I walked up to one of the senior guards, telling him. "I wish to speak to Virion Eralith."

The guard fumbled to get into proper position, eventually sputtering. "I-I'm sorry, but the Wall is being o-overrun by beasts. They h-have been evacuated further."

Nodding, I split apart the thick walls of the room, checking the situation. Many powerful beasts, SS class at the lowest, were rampaging free, slaughtering many soldiers.

I turned to face the soldier with an urgent expression. "What do you know about Reynolds, Alice and Eleanor Leywin?" 

"I-I think they went to fight with their team members."

'Those idiots!' - I sighed - 'They wouldn't have taken Ellie with them to the battlefield.' I thought.

"Alright, start an urgent search for Eleanor Leywin, and make sure she's unharmed. That is an order." - I turned to the lances - "Let's go."

'Alright, you guys are free to rampage. Keep a look out for my family or the twin horns.' I said as I cut up a large squid-like beast.

'Finally, some action!' Sent Regis, shooting out of my body towards the closest beast.

Sylv wordlessly flew up into the sky, cutting up beasts with Dawn's ballad.

I took Night's ballad into my hands and leapt up into the sky, landing in the middle of a pack of powerful beasts and subsequently cutting them into pieces.

 I shot around the battlefield, the gusts of wind my sheer speed generated flinging the cut up body parts of beasts around, letting out the rage I had built up over the years.

An alien voice started screamed at me, driving nails through my brain. 'Kill them. Slaughter them all! All of them!' 

I fell to my knees, holding my head as the pain slowly subsided. A few beasts managed to take a swing at me, throwing me around the battlefield, but that didn't even scratch me.

'Arthur!' Sylv cried out as she flew to me at full speed.

'It's alright.' I sent back.

Imbuing my legs with aether and mana, I shot off towards the beasts and imbued my fist with aether and mana, punching the large beast in the belly and knocking it dozens of meters away.

As I was preparing to punch the next beast, I couldn't help but wonder if there was more to it than simply imbuing my hand with mana and aether. If there was another stage, an element of pure destruction.

Then, it hit me. The supposedly infinite potential of aether laid untapped right in front of me, yet I was blind to it. It was always there, yet I couldn't see it. So close, yet so far.

My pained expression turned into a grin. "Destruction"

"What? Are you okay?" Said Sylvie, landing next to me with worry in her eyes.

"Yeah.. I'm fine, more than fine. I finally understand." I said, my grin widening.

I remembered that Eva said something about destruction, how the universe flames were compared with it, but I instantly knew this was on another level.

"Understand what?" Her worry leaked into my mind like a flood, yet the palpable urge to kill overwhelmed it.

"This."

I imbued my fist with aether and mana, but it was different. The action of imbuing aether into my fist was much more natural and controlled, as if something was guiding me. Excruciating pain radiated from my head as a flood of foreign knowledge embedded itself inside my brain.

My right hand was now covered in an amethyst flame as a foreign rune pushed my existing runes apart followed by immense pain, traveling through my body to the base of my spine. The runes went back to their previous position, but my lower back now had an unknown, complex rune engraved into it.

A large cow-like beast with purple spots on black skin approached, showing off its shiny onyx horns reminiscent to those of a reindeer.

"Perfect testing dummy." I said in a sinister voice as the cow approached closer, ready to dash at me.

The amethyst flame felt tranquil, cold, yet overwhelming. Adrenaline filled my body, my urge to kill strengthening.  I Godstepped to the side of the cow, executing a punch with my right hand. The rune on my lower back glowed bright purple, as destruction funneled more aether through it into my arm. 

My punch released a shockwave so powerful that it created a giant ravine in the ground, the large cow now split into multiple small pieces flying away at extreme speeds, disintegrating mid flight due to the amethyst flame clinging onto them. The barrier of aether that took all my efforts to destroy would be mere child's play now.

I started maniacally laughing, my thoughts and Sylvie's and Regis' screams both blinded by the urge to kill.

Aether coursed through my body, destruction in every part. I shot off at previously unreachable speeds towards the next group of living beings due to the shockwave creating upon using destruction on the ground, uncaring if they were friend or foe.

A large crater was left behind me, amethyst flame spreading at monstrous speeds.

Large shockwaves spread through the battlefield along with purple flames as I destroyed everything within my sight.

The amethyst flames started eating away at my body, as chunks of skin disintegrated, turning to ash.

'Arthur!' Regis' voice managed to finally get through the thick wall of bloodlust.

I realized what was going on, falling to my knees and frantically trying to stop the aether flooding into the rune from my spellforms and body, yet I couldn't. I could merely stop part of it, but that didn't help. I was slowly going insane, killing everyone in my path and leaving enormous craters in the ground everywhere I landed.

Regis managed to catch up to me, nestling himself inside me. He frantically started consuming all the aether within me, the flames dwindling.

With the dwindling flames came clarity as I used destruction on my leg, the shockwave completely destroying it. With the pain came full clarity as I could finally comprehend what I did. I stopped the dwindling aether from reaching the rune, closing the flood gates.

My leg and flesh regenerated, using up the last of my aether reserves as I looked behind me, seeing the destruction I had caused.

Author's note: EXPLANATION OF ARTHURS NEW POWER! I think this question would be asked in the comments, so I'm pre-emptively answering it. 

so, destruction was inspired by universe flames and the extreme shock wave thingy he did to destroy the barrier around the castle in the relictombs. destruction can create large shockwaves + has the amethyst flames due to this. you might be wondering why godstep doesnt give him a godrune tho - well, the panthers didnt have it too right? in the snow region. they could godstep without a godrune. arthur is the spatium genus, so godstep came to him pretty naturally. hes not too good at vivum tho, meaning he could use destruction without a godrune, but aether gave him one. we all have little understanding of how godrunes work, but imo its: you gotta have an idea of what the thing is gonna be like + gotta have a prototype. for godstep in main series, his prototype was burst step. here it was the sylvia godstep, but that isnt a prototype, merely an inspiration. both have their uses, thus cant be a prototype.

THX FOR READING, LOVE YALL! ALSO, WE REACHED 30 CHAPS! THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT GUYS!